


When the cold creeps in, you’ll warm my skin

by Wingschester7



Category: Eddie the Eagle (2016)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:20:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25789477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wingschester7/pseuds/Wingschester7
Summary: Who better to teach him the finer points of skiing other than the man who can jump ninety meters while blind drunk and barely coherent.Eddie just didn’t expect to feel so much for the man who’s only supposed to be his teacher.
Relationships: Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards/Bronson Peary
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	When the cold creeps in, you’ll warm my skin

**Author's Note:**

> ~just a bit of self-indulgent writing about what I’d have loved to see included in the movie :)

Eddie stares fairly shellshocked at the man who is saluting them drunkenly before striding off to the distance. A man who's just done _ninety metres_ in an obviously inebriated state, without any protective gear, armed with simply a cigarette and a whole lot of Dutch courage... and made it look entirely effortless! 

_I want to learn from him,_ he thinks. _I need to learn from him._

So a few days later he hunts down the American to his isolated cabin in the woods and begs him for his tutelage.

It's a long, lengthy argument but he wins.

Bronson Peary frowns at him. "You're mad, you know that."

Eddie isn't sure he's suppose to answer because that didn't sound so much a question as a statement. 

So when Peary turns away from him and strides outside the door, Eddie runs after him following close on his heels.

"We'll begin tomorrow." The other man grumbles over his shoulder. 

"I - I... You won't regret this..." 

"Already do. Go away."  
~

Peary doesn't go easy on him. Eddie goes to bed every night with a sore back and aching bones. But he feels good, he knows he's making progress.

The man refuses to let Eddie call him coach, answers his questions with indecipherable grunts and returns his chatter with derisive eye rolls, he snaps and yells at him, but Eddie knows there's kindness hiding beneath the hard shell the man presents to people. Peary works him like a donkey but Eddie, while whining and complaining, basks in the attention. Because _he_ is always there, holding him steady when he stumbles, giving him a hand when he falls on his arse, guiding him, correcting his many errors - and sometimes letting out a guffaw when he falls on is face. 

He takes him to get new skis and gear and Eddie thinks he might cry.

A few weeks in and Eddie has a sneaking suspicion that he's letting his brain - and heart - get away with him when it comes to the older man. A man who undoubtedly sees him as an annoying kid who he wants out of his hair as soon as possible. Best not to dwell on things which will never be, he tells himself grimly.  
~

The Norwegian evening is chilling to the bones but one wouldn't guess that by looking at Peary who is wielding an axe, without a shirt as usual, while Eddie sits nearby with a mug of milk and watches - in a way that he hopes seems - casually. He tries not to scrutinise the play of shoulder muscles of the man before him while he absently draws a deep gulp of warm milk. 

Peary adds to his pile of perfectly cut logs and Eddie thinks about bloody inconvenient feelings. All the past twenty two years of his life, Eddie hadn't looked at anyone - girl or guy - twice. Hell, he barely knows anyone other than his mum and dad! And now, when the last thing he needs is a distraction, least of all a broken heart, he's gone ahead and lost his marbles over his tutor.

He sighs. 

He returns his attention to the present just as Peary has finished lining up the pieces of wood in a line before him. "Daylight's wasting, kid. Let's go!"

Eddie puts away his drink and readies himself for more torture.  
~

Peary is sitting on the stack of hay before him while Eddie is crouched on top of the small slide with a skateboard clutched in his hands. He fidgets, pushing up his glasses.

"There's something missing, kid. You're not..." the other man has a frustrated expression on his face. A couple of seconds pass before Peary blinks at him. "Hang on. Tell me your favourite actress? The girl of your dreams."

Eddie is nonplussed at the turn of topic. "Uh," he stutters, frantically trying to think of someone, anyone. "Honestly... Bo Derek?" He says hesitantly.

Peary claps. "Good call!" He jumps up to stand and speaks excitedly. "Every jump from here on in, I want you to approach it like you're making love to the beautiful Bo Derek."

Eddie pushes his glasses up, clutching the skateboard tighter. "...Right."

"Starting gate is your foreplay, the in-run is where you build your rhythm..."

What. The fuck. Is going on? Eddie is sure he resembles a fish right now and tries his best to keep his expression controlled because... it's suddenly too hot, too uncomfortable in his double layered shirts and jackets. 

"...and the take off! That's your special moment. The same facial expressions, the same straining of muscles, the same feeling of release..."

Eddie prays this little speech is ending soon, because he is beginning to have a not-so-little problem which will be plain evident in a few moments if he so much as stands up. 

Peary's eyes are brightly lit with the most exhilarating smile and Eddie is sure his heart is trying to beat out of his own chest. Eddie imagines what it'd be like to share such a moment with the other man - to experience in flesh what the other had just described in words... it's a moot fantasy but hey, a guy can dream, right? 

Just when Eddie was beginning to sigh in relief, Peary instructs him to practice on the skate board - which wouldn't be so bad - except that it involves a lot of _hands on_ experience.

Eddie jumps. And the man catches him around the waist - displaying the obvious strength and graceful ease with which he supports Eddie's whole body. He finds himself concentrating very hard not to swoon as his body slides down against the other's, excruciatingly slow and intimate.

Then he has to repeat the whole thing at least fifty times.  
~

It isn't Bo Derek he thinks of in the end after all, as he flies over the world. All the advice drilled into him is lost as he soars through the air and all that's left in his mind is... a gruff voice calling out "Up, back, forward, down" on repeat and the familiar whiff of cigarette smoke and alcohol...

His body is flying through the cold air but all he smells is the stuffy, musty cabin and feels strong arms catching his waist, holding his body securely, gently setting him down.

"...muscles straining, the same feeling of release." Eddie imagines how Peary had looked with his eyes closed in imagined bliss, his voice smooth and sending goosebumps across his own skin...

His feet hit ground and his breath is knocked out from him. He's landed awkwardly, with bent knees and flaying arms, and finds himself with his back millimetres from the snow on the ground, but his feet are still steering the skis well enough... and - there's a ghost of an exasperated American voice calling out his name... and he somehow manages to pull himself back up...

He's done it. He sees his name flashing on the large display "MICHAEL EDWARDS 71.5" and the crowd is deafening; there's someone announcing a new British record. He sees Peary screaming and cheering for him.

"Come on!" Eddie shouts, calling out for the man to come to him. And watches the other man flinging off his aviators and swinging those long legs over the fence before running towards himself.

Eddie throws his body at other man before he can stop himself, bringing him as close as he possibly could, wrapping his arms around him in an all-encompassing octopus hug.

"You did it! You actually did it, you son of a - " Peary mutters in his ear and Eddie feels the words flow over him cutting through the noise of the crowd. 

"Because of you." He says muffled against his jacket and he draws back slightly to look at the face before him. "Thankyou, for everything."

Dark eyes, piercing and sincere, meet his own with a smile and triumph he has never seen on the other man before and knowing Eddie himself is the cause of it fills him with elation. 

Peary grins and simply pulls him back for another breathtaking hug.  
~

Eddie sits with his glass of milk again which Peary takes one look at and sighs.

"Even today?" he asks.

"Especially today! This strict milk only rule helped me win after all." Eddie is grinning.

"I had something to do with it too." 

Eddie gives a noncommittal shrug in return which Peary answers with a friendly punch in his shoulder.

"How about some hot chocolate?" 

"Ummm - " Eddie blinks. "That - that does sound good. Can I have some marshmallows?"

Petra comes and sets a glass of bitter in front of Peary and then turns to him. "No marshmallows, but I got whipped cream."

"That'll do." Eddie says happily.

Peary looks on in approval as he thoroughly enjoys his drink, and Eddie thinks the feeling of the other man's soft gaze on him is akin to flying over the snowy slopes.

He sets down his empty mug and Peary leans forwards over the table. "You have a milk moustache."

Eddie reflexively swipes his tongue over his upper lip, and watches Peary glancing at his mouth. He vaguely notices the warmth spreading through his body from both the hot beverage and the rather small space between the two of them. 

"You - still have some - here, let me," Peary mutters and then his thumb his reaching out to swipe at the corner of his lips. The simmering warmth he felt earlier is now a blazing fire, spreading across his face. Eddie knows he must have a mortifying blush over his cheeks and then - Peary promptly sucks on his own thumb. 

Eddie isn't sure who moans when Peary has his eyes closed but either way, he doesn't think he can take any more of ... whatever this is before he does something he'll sorely regret.

He bolts.  
~

Eddie hears Peary calling his name as he runs out on the snow covered ground. 

“Go away!”

“Eddie, what’s wrong?” Peary catches up to him easily putting his hands on his shoulders as if to keep him from escaping.

“I - Nothing, I’m fine.” Eddie pushes his glasses up, he isn’t sure where to look - or where to put his hands - with the man so close.

“Eddie.” 

“Really. It’s nothing. Nothing you need to worry about anyway.”

“I’m gonna get it outta you either way, kid.” Peary tips his chin up with a hand and Eddie is suddenly looking into warm eyes that bore into his own. “So out with it.”

“I can’t. It’s too hard.” His voice is little more than a whisper. He wants to tell him, god - he wants to scream - but he doesn’t even know if the other man is into guys - much less Eddie himself.

“Well, I can’t be the one to say it, kid. I’m,” Peary sighs, “ - way too old for you.”

“What.” Eddie stops breathing, doesn’t dare hope.

“You’re you and I’m me. You’re a star now, you’ll have many people throwing themselves at you. And me - I’m just a drunk loser - “

“Shut up. Just shut up.” Eddie cries. “I want you - fuck, _Bronson_ , I - “

Thankfully he’s saved from any further senseless rambling by the other man’s lips meeting his own and Eddie wraps his arms around him to leave no space between their bodies.

Eddie has thought about kissing Peary so often - and now, it’s every bit as mind-blowing and reality altering as he thought it’d be and more… it’s so much more…

Then they’re laughing, and kissing some more - and they hold each other’s hand tightly when they walk back inside. Petra smirks at them and looks very smug.

“Fuckign finally.” She rolls her eyes. “Idiots.”

Eddie blushes crimson while his boyfriend simply gives her a one-fingered salute.  
~

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Loreen - Ride


End file.
